Despite our expectations this week that the finale would prove a galactic-wide affair, the bookend approach that was utilised proved just as effective. The crew of the Raza began the season locked up in an enclosed space (Hyperion-8) and the crew ended the season in a similarly claustrophobic setting. Below you will find our spoiler-heavy review of the Season 2 finale of Dark Matter.

Rather than witnessing a literal war take place, we were instead granted the detail of the run up to what might prove to be the start of said war. “How do we know it’s not inevitable?” was one question posed, which brought the mechanics of parallel universes nicely back to the forefront of our minds. In precisely how many universe does the war erupt (whatever the cause might be)? And if that number is extremely high, then surely our crew are wading against an impossible current? But good people fight, no matter the odds.

One key underlying thread this season has been androids and their illegal human upgrades, so it was nice to see the writers loop that arc back in, within this episode, rather than simply allow it to fall by the wayside. This was in the form of Arrian (Kyle Mac); a gentlemanly assistant who in truth carries the bomb designed to blow up the space station containing the Council of Corporations. After first finding Arrian to be all too strange (his “there she goes again” was mighty creepy), we soon grew to love his inclusion after we learned that we was an android.

Arrian (Kyle Mac) – the android concealing a bomb to blow up the space station.

Questions of fate and probability can be mulled over once more when you think of the affect that Five had on Arrian. If she hadn’t been the crew member to take on the subterfuge mission (and the rules of parallel universes dictate that somewhere there is a universe where someone else took on the role) then would Arrian have been inspired to sacrifice himself in the same manner that he did? Perhaps if The Android herself had taken Five’s place, she would have engaged with Arrian in a similarly effective fashion.

We have to point out the aggravation that cast media posts caused us, in relation to spoiling some of this episode. Yesterday – before the finale aired – Melanie Liburd posted on Instagram that she can finally reveal that she has been cast in the new show Gypsy and that this is the reason she moved to New York. This immediately placed doubts in our mind as to whether Nyx would survive the finale and after a lethal brush with Misaki, it looks like Nyx has indeed met her end. We’re all for cast being able to share their exciting news and we’re very happy for Liburd, but this particular tidbit seemed a little ill-timed. If Liburd had waited only one more day, then we would have seen the episode before reading her casting news and we wouldn’t never have guessed Nyx’s fate.

As Misaki returns to Four (Ryo), after mortally wounding Nyx, Four asks her if she came across any resistance and she tells him “no”. The Misaki that we know from Episode 12 seemed very loyal indeed to us, even to a fault, so this little lie to her ruler surprised us and maybe it shows that there is more depth to her personality than we might assume. We do hope to see Ellen Wong return next season and it’s a shame that Kris Holden-Reid won’t similarly be able to return with Kierkan, but some lives need to be lost in season finales, so we can see why his was taken.

Nyx is poisoned by Misaki-Han in the finale and Melanie Liburd posted about being a cast in a new show, so Nyx seems to have met her end.

We did find the ultimate ending rather aggravating, in all honesty, but we know that the writers favour cliffhangers and as long as SyFy grant a third season of the show, then all can be forgiven. Our crew are certainly in a dire situation – stranded upon an an exploding space station, with many of them injured, fleeing or already dead.

To look back upon this entire season, in short it’s simply blown us away with the myriad of ways in which it has taken familiar SF tropes and utilised them to astounding effect. With most shows you can look back upon a season and immediately highlight a favourite episode, but here we’d be extremely hard pushed to do so. From the ingeniousness of I’ve Seen the Other Side of You, to the sheer power of Stuff to Steal, People to Kill, to the intellectual acuity of Take the Shot, we’ve been truly spoiled by Mallozzi and co this year. We’re very grateful that quality SF shows like Dark Matter exist and we hope SyFy see the merit in allowing the creators to see through their five season plan.

Now before we leave you, we have a very special competition to tell you all about. One lucky winner will be able to get their hands on a Dark Matter cast-signed script from episode 205 – We voted not to space you. To be in with a chance to win this script you’ll need to follow @thenerdrecites on Twitter and retweet the following competition tweet: